Poole Slalom Club Latest

OK so, our numbers weren’t as high as in some of our previous sessions, but WOW, what a great time we all had!

I don’t know if it was the earlier rain/grey skies that put some people off, or the fact that the speed course down at Weymouth was apparently working well…. but one thing’s for sure, if you thought it was going to be too windy for slalom, and went wave sailing instead, then you missed out big time!

As you can see from the pics, a lot of us were using wave sails…. and fast wave boards or Freestyle Boards were easily in the majority.  In the windy, lumpy conditions, this easier to handle kit was often proving to be the faster over the whole course…. I know i had one of the gnarliest mid reach explosions i’ve ever had (on my high wind slalom board), as Russell Hanford will testify, when he screamed past laughing on his fast wave board!


I laid a 4 legged (medium length) downwind course.  Broad and ballistic was the name of the game…. he who dares wins!

From the off, most people were using a “six point something”metre… but by the time we started, the wind had jacked right up to maxed out “five point something” conditions.  Not to be put off, and in true Poole Slalomer spirit (!), we all grunted hard and had a couple of totally hanging on races, before most people changed down….

Andy Summerfield was getting some obscene speeds out of his freestyle board and was at head of the pack for both races, along with usual suspect James Dinsmore….

The next time i saw Dave Barton back on the beach, he had the look of “I’ve been to hell and back” written all over his face!… at the same time though, while he was laughing away, you could tell that the sheer exhilaration of it had been worth every minute ….

Most of us then changed down to our wave sails, and marched back to the water’s edge for some more action.  Ian Ruby stuck with his 6.0m (i think), the brave man… and along with Wayne Jennings and Dave Sharpe on smaller kit, he was revelling in the high speed conditions, taking a victory just after the break.

When we finished a race, before heading back up wind, most of us took the opportunity to make a few turns on the increasing waves on the inside.  And while it was fun, they just didn’t get good enough for any of us to want to stop doing more slalom races…. so we continued, maybe completing over 10 in the end.

Big thanks to each and every one of you that made the effort to come along (especially Gerry Northwood from Portsmouth), you all added to my own high wind slalom experience on that memorable day…. see you all again soon.

Please keep your eyes peeled for Fred’s email regarding this Thursday’s arrangements, the forecast looks like anything could happen at the moment…. Fingers crossed.


Ed Britnell
K-Bay